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World-Infostructure |
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World-Infostructure provides information on a variety of topics that enable to understand the context in which actual developments in the field of new media and technologies happen. The timeline of communication systems presents a chronological overview of the most important events in the  history of communication systems and shows the acceleration in the storage and processing of information. Moreover World-Information.Org explores the level of concentration and exclusion between the north and south as well as between the corporate world and the public interest. On the basis of a world map it illustrates the levels of saturation with technology, and the power structures and assets of the commercial sphere vs. the civil sector and the public interest.
Slaves and expert systems is concerned with technological developments such as the invention of powered machines, computers, robots and artificial intelligence that enable the automation of labor processes. Also the role of expert systems in the workplace and the social status of machines vs. humans is examined. A history of disinformation and propaganda is given in disinformation vs. democracy. It demonstrates the methods of falsification and manipulation in digital environments, and shows the power and dangers of automated information systems and their potential for abuse. The fusion of flesh and machine, the rise of biometrics, the patenting of life, and the development of body implants is the issue of biotechnology convergence.
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Chappe's fixed optical network
Claude Chappe built a fixed optical network between Paris and Lille. Covering a distance of about 240kms, it consisted of fifteen towers with semaphores.
Because this communication system was destined to practical military use, the transmitted messages were encoded. The messages were kept such secretly, even those who transmit them from tower to tower did not capture their meaning, they just transmitted codes they did not understand. Depending on weather conditions, messages could be sent at a speed of 2880 kms/hr at best.
Forerunners of Chappe's optical network are the  Roman smoke signals network and Aeneas Tacitus' optical communication system.
For more information on early communication networks see Gerard J. Holzmann and Bjoern Pehrson, The Early History of Data Networks.
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